An Unwelcome Welcome
Clang! Clang!
Deep in the rhythm of mana breathing, Nora snapped her eyes open. The warding alarm spell she had set around the perimeter as a precaution was chiming in frantic, piercing bursts.
“Which piece of trash dared…!”
Pushing herself up, she snatched her staff and stalked out of the solitary cell. A mercenary came scrambling toward her down the corridor, bowing his head in a panic.
“Lady Nora, someone is approaching the perim—”
“Shut up! Do you think I'm deaf?”
“I-I beg your pardon!”
The mercenary shrank back, bowing obsequiously in a desperate bid to placate her. She was a woman of slender, almost delicate stature, but everyone here knew just how completely unhinged she was. Two hirelings had already lost their lives for getting on Nora's bad side, and over the most trivial nonsense imaginable.
“The confirmed count is three intruders,” the mercenary offered hesitantly.
“Three? That's all?” Nora sneered, tightening her grip on her staff.
Reaching the threshold of the solitary confinement ward alongside her hireling, she surveyed the path ahead. The broad backs of her hired cutthroats came into view first, and just past them, standing a modest distance away, stood the three strangers.
“What's this? Still standing there instead of running away?” Nora's brows knitted together. Despite being hopelessly outnumbered, the intruders showed no sign of backing down. Hmph. Entertaining little rats.
Drawing closer, the reason for their stubborn stand finally clicked. One of the intruders was clad from neck to heel in gleaming plate armor. Full plate armor was the unmistakable hallmark of a knight.
Ah. So that’s where their guts come from? A cruel, mocking smirk curled Nora's lips. “Throwing your weight around just because you’ve got a knight in tow?”
There was no denying that knights were formidable opponents. With their intensely honed bodies and elite swordsmanship, ordinary sellswords stood zero chance against them. But this side had her. A knight? She could melt the fool into slag before he ever closed the distance.
“Must be itching for a grave. Watch closely, boys. Let's see how many seconds your precious knight can last.”
Raising her staff aloft, Nora began gathering mana. While her overall mastery could hardly be called supreme, the offensive spells she favored were practiced to lethal perfection. The incantation she was weaving right now was more than enough to wipe out that nameless knight and both companions flanking him in one sweeping blast.
With the spell practically complete, Nora swung her arm forward to release the final invocation.
Thwip!
“Ghk—?”
Nora’s body spasmed violently, going limp like a marionette whose strings had been severed in mid-air.
“Ah…”
A black-fletched bolt was buried deep between her brows. Stumbling backward blindly, she collapsed right against the mercenary behind her. The hireling caught the dead mage in his arms, his face draining of all color. Her staff clattered loudly against the stone floor, rolling away. At the sudden sound, the mercenaries confronting the intruders glanced over their shoulders on pure instinct.
“What—what the hell?”
That split-second distraction was all Bennett’s vanguard needed. With every enemy eye turned toward the rear, Kyle, Edgar, and Rose charged in unison.
“Yaaaaagh!”
BOOM!
Edgar drove forward at full sprint, crashing his massive shield directly into the vanguard. The impact tossed three mercenaries into the air like ragdolls before slamming them into the cold stone floor. Kyle and Rose plunged into the shattered gap, their blades flashing like silver lightning.
The remaining sellswords scrambled to regroup, but the flashing steel was far faster than their flustered reactions. Their numerical advantage evaporated into meaningless slaughter. Stripped of their mage, the mercenary line collapsed into absolute chaos.
“W-Wait!”
The man still cradling Nora's corpse threw up a frantic hand, but Rose’s blade punched straight through the bridge of his nose before he could finish the plea.
He was the last one standing.
Scanning the corridor to ensure no enemies remained breathing, Kyle and Edgar let out long, relieved sighs.
“That was a flawless shot, Bennett-nim.”
Bennett, stepping out from the shadows where he had sniped the mage, casually waved his hand as if it were nothing. In truth, picking off targets at range was second nature to a seasoned ranger like him. Doing it inside a dungeon, however, was a first.
As expected, system rewards and stat increases followed in swift succession. After a brief glance at the notifications, Bennett turned his attention back to the bloody scene.
“Let's harvest the gear first.”
It was reminiscent of wiping out the Hunters back in the LT Department Store. Bennett and the rest of the group knelt down to search the fallen mercenaries.
“Their gear is surprisingly decent,” Edgar muttered, turning over a breastplate.
They weren’t some ragged rabble; the quality of their arms and armor suggested an established, well-funded mercenary band.
“Would you like some advice?”
Bennett’s hand froze as he searched the female mage's corpse. Rose had silently walked up behind him.
“You’d be surprised how many people tuck their true valuables inside their underwear.”
“I'm aware,” Bennett replied curtly.
Rose didn't back down. There was an unmistakable trace of condescension in her eyes, looking down at him from behind her visor.
“Do you have anything tucked away like that yourself, Bennett-nim?”
Bennett’s brow furrowed. Rose’s tone was cheerful as always, but beneath it ran an aloof, alien chill—something entirely discordant with the persona she had presented thus far.
“…Why would you ask that?”
His tone was icy, the flat response of a man accustomed to keeping his cards close to his chest, yet Rose didn't seem bothered in the slightest.
“Well, just make sure to check that mage thoroughly. No need to be shy about it.” Rose offered a faint smile and turned back to gathering the packs. That smile, however, carried a subtle sting of mockery.
Am I reading too much into it? Bennett turned back to the corpse, though Rose’s words and sudden shift in demeanor lingered in his mind like a bad taste. Brushing the irritation aside, he resumed looting.
First off, the staff is an absolute must.
For someone delving into a dangerous dungeon, the dead woman carried shockingly little personal baggage. It seemed she had offloaded all her supplies onto the mercenaries, leaving behind only a modest daypack. There was hardly anything practical inside—odd trinkets and reagents that might hold value for a practicing mage, but virtually worthless on the resale market outside. Bennett couldn't help but click his tongue. It was hard to believe an experienced delver would carry so little utility.
After pocketing a few emergency healing draughts, he shoved the corpse aside with his boot. The haul was underwhelming for a mage, but the staff alone was worth the gear of two or three frontline mercenaries combined, so the venture wasn't a total loss.
As the others finished securing their loot, Bennett approached the solitary cell where Nora had been holed up. On the surface, it looked identical to every other damp, narrow cell in the block. But Bennett possessed a reliable tool of his own.
Insight Lv.1
A faint blue light flashed across Bennett’s retinas as he scanned the back of the final cell. Stepping inside, he moved straight toward the far wall.
Whoosh…
Pressing his ear against the cold partition, he caught the faint, rhythmic whisper of moving air. His fingers traced along the seams until his hand suddenly halted. Visually, the surface appeared uniform, but the texture here carried a distinct, unnatural warmth. Taking out the identification card he had recovered from the visitation room, Bennett held it flat against the seam.
Clack!
The solid wall split down the middle, sliding aside to reveal a squared, metallic alcove. At first glance, it appeared to be nothing more than a dead-end cubicle, but Bennett knew better.
“Bennett-nim?” Kyle called out.
Signaling the party to hold their positions, Bennett stepped inside the metal compartment. Bright, cool light bathed the interior from flush overhead panels. Beside the entrance frame sat a vertical array of unfamiliar, labeled panels.
[ 1F ]
⋮
[ B1 ]
Noting that the [ 1F ] indicator was softly pulsing, Bennett waved the party forward. Gathering their packs, the three entered cautiously. Once everyone was inside, Bennett pressed the lower button labeled [ B1 ].
— Doors closing.
A flat, artificial voice echoed through the enclosure as the seam sealed shut. The compartment smoothly sank downward.
Ding!
With a crisp chime, the doors slid open. The party tensed, peering out into the space beyond with weapons drawn.
The hallway stretching before them was unnervingly pristine. The floor was laid with polished, cold alloy, while the walls and ceiling were clad in stark, uniform gray panels. There was not a speck of dust in sight, giving the sterile corridor an imposing, clinical weight that pressed down on the chest.
Bennett led the way out of the lift, the others trailing close behind. Every bootfall rang sharply against the polished metal. Along the walls and ceiling, peculiar apparatuses were mounted at regular intervals—sharp, metallic contrivances that appeared to be defensive turrets. Fortunately, whoever had come before them had thoroughly wrecked the system; the mechanisms hung limp, trailing thin wisps of acrid smoke.
Whoever came through here first, thanks for clearing the path. Bennett paused briefly to inspect one of the ruined devices. Its intricate internal design was completely alien. Even the renowned dwarven artificers back home, masters of clockwork and steam, built nothing that resembled these seamless mechanisms.
At the end of the corridor, heavy double blast doors stood thrown wide open. Beyond them lay a laboratory. While lined with the same cold alloy paneling as the hallway, the interior felt far sharper, dominated by complex machinery. Various tools and equipment were neatly arranged across metallic benches, yet several workbenches showed signs of frantic, recent use.
Just as the party crossed the threshold into the facility—
Hiss!
The open blast doors dropped with blinding speed.
CLANG!
A second reinforced partition slammed down between them, neatly slicing the party in half: Bennett and Rose on the inner side, Kyle and Edgar stranded on the other.
— I was wondering when you vermin would crawl down here.
An unfamiliar, harsh voice rasped through overhead speakers. Bennett and Rose snapped their weapons up, scouring the ceiling.
— Vengeance for my disciple. Especially you.
Bennett knew immediately that the speaker meant him. How did he know who fired the shot? The thought was fleeting; the man on the intercom was a mage, and divination or monitoring magic was easily within their wheelhouse.
Glancing back through the reinforced viewing port of the partition, Bennett's eyes narrowed. Another squad of armed mercenaries had materialized in the corridor, swarming to surround Kyle and Edgar. The two men stood back-to-back, weapons raised in tight defensive formation. Meeting Bennett's gaze through the glass, Kyle gave a resolute nod, signaling that they could hold—
“Bennett-nim, behind you!”
Bennett threw himself sideways. A fiery sphere hurtled past his ear by a hair's breadth and detonated against the blast door behind him.